Social media marketing has become one of the most effective forms of marketing: pretty much everyone is on social media, and new marketers keep hopping on board. However, simply creating an account on any random platform and posting tons of promotional content won’t get you very far. Social media marketing takes time to get the hang of, and beginners should familiarize themselves with some basic rules.
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Secure your social media accounts
Digital safety is the first thing that you should focus on when it comes to social media marketing. Once your social media starts taking off, you might get into hackers’ radars, so you should take preventative measures against them as soon as possible. Without properly securing your social media accounts, you can lose all of your hard work in an instant. Always use strong passwords and keep them to yourself. Make sure you also have antivirus and a firewall installed, and look out for online scams looking to gain access to your accounts!
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Drop useless platforms
Not all social media platforms are equally useful. For example, Facebook is generally more popular among older people, and TikTok is popular among kids. You need to determine who your target audience is and which social media channels they like to use. Don’t waste your time on TikTok marketing if your product is targeted at 40-year-olds.
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Focus on useful content, not just boring promotional content
The main goal in social media marketing should be to engage your users and get them interested in your content. Unfortunately, interesting content is rarely promotional content. As much as you may want to advertise your brand through everything you post, try to refrain from doing this.
Why would anyone buy your product or service if you don’t give them anything useful? Focus on posting interesting content related to your niche. Do some research to figure out what your target audience cares about and what they’d like to hear from you, and only post promotional content every once in a while. This way, your brand will have some authority, which will ultimately boost your conversions.
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Analyze competitors
The best way to create a successful social media strategy is by doing what your successful competitors are doing. Which social media channels do your competitors mainly use? How often do they post? What tone of voice do they use? Of course, your competitors shouldn’t be the only guideline for your social media strategy, but they should definitely be considered.
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Stay consistent
To ensure that your audience remains engaged and that your posts appear on explore pages, you must stay consistent. Consistency means posting often and not taking long breaks between posts (you might post once a week, or you might post a few times a week: the point is that you maintain the same schedule). By staying consistent, you will keep adding trust and authority to your social media accounts.
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Use planning tools
To make the previous point (of staying consistent) easier, start using social media planning tools. Such tools allow you to create posts for your social media in advance and schedule them for even a month ahead of time. This is especially useful for when you’re going on vacation and don’t want to be constantly checking up on your social media and adding new posts.
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Add social media share buttons to your website
If you have a website, be sure to integrate it with your social media accounts by adding share buttons. This will help increase exposure to your brand through channels other than your official social media accounts. Social shares are one of the most important metrics because they are much more trusted by users than simple posts from your official social media account (because they’re coming from people they know).
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Engage with your audience
You don’t want your followers to think you’re just an official and boring corporation. By engaging with your followers (for example, by creating polls or answering comments), you add a human touch to your brand and improve your relationship with your followers. A good relationship means more trust placed in your brand and a higher chance of conversion. Plus, engaging with followers will lead to valuable insights on how they perceive your brand and how you can improve it.
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Monitor your performance
It’s important to know which social media strategies work for your brand and which don’t. At the very beginning, you shouldn’t expect everything to work out perfectly: you’ll learn through trial and error. Try to figure out which platforms are performing best, what the most effective timing for your posts is, and what tone of voice your followers appreciate the most.
Improving your social media strategy is a never-ending process, even if you think you’ve gotten it down already. The market keeps changing, and people keep developing new interests, so never stop monitoring your social media results.
Conclusion
There you have it: 9 must-know social media marketing tips for beginners. It might seem overwhelming at first, but it isn’t that complicated! Take it one step at a time. Maybe begin with just one social media platform and apply all 9 tips to it. Later, add more and more platforms to your marketing strategy, don’t be afraid to experiment with your content, and always keep track of your results. This way, you’ll be well on your way to creating the most effective social media strategy for your brand.
